SAINTS will all but consign Newcastle and Rafael Benitez to their relegation fate unless the Magpies can break their St Mary’s curse on Saturday.

Newcastle, who are six points adrift of safety at the bottom of the Premier League with seven games left, haven’t tasted victory in 12 long years at St Mary’s.

They have lost their last two outings at Saints 4-0, the one before that 2-0 and have failed to win in all five of the clubs' last meetings.

To top that, Benitez – Newcastle’s new manager who has failed to win any of his first three games in charge – was a 2-1 loser at St Mary’s when he was in interim charge of Chelsea in 2012/13 – although he did lead his Blues side to a 5-1 FA Cup victory on the south coast earlier that campaign.

It all adds up to a hoodoo that the hapless Magpies and their manager will have to somehow overcome if they are to stand any chance of pulling clear of the top-flight’s danger zone and avoid their second relegation to the Championship in seven years.

Newcastle have spent big this term – around £70m has been shelled out on players, which is more than any other club bar Manchester City.

But their heavy outlay for players such as January arrivals Andros Townsend and Jonjo Shelvey, who both cost £12m, hasn’t benefitted them on the pitch and they have tasted victory just six times in 31 games so far this term.

It has proved, once more, that the scatter gun recruitment that the Magpies have used this season has – like yoyo club QPR before them – yielded few results on field.

Such were their poor results that they sent former England manager Steve McClaren, who took over at the start of the campaign, packing just under a month ago, bringing in the former Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter Milan and Napoli boss Benitez to try and change their fortunes.

However, they arrive in Hampshire on Saturday having lost to relegation rivals Norwich and surprise league leaders Leicester under the experienced Spaniard, with a draw against fierce adversaries and fellow bottom-three side Sunderland in between.

It has certainly not been the turnaround that they were hoping for and the St James’ Park side will now have to try and defy what recent history has told us.

Last term Saints battered a very poor Newcastle side 4-0 with goals from Jack Cork and Morgan Schneiderlin as well as a brace by Graziano Pelle.

In 2013/14 Jay Rodriguez’s double, Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert saw Saints again thrash their visitors from the north east.

Their run of recent defeats started in 2012/13 when Lallana and Gaston Ramirez won it for Saints in a 2-0 loss.

The last time Newcastle did win on the south coast was when a David Prutton own goal and Stephen Carr’s winner – after Ander Svensson had levelled – gave them a 2-1 victory all the way back in September 2004.

This term, they arrive at Saints with so much at stake, but will find Koeman’s side hungry to reignite their tilt for a lofty finish after ending a three-game unbeaten run at the Foxes on Sunday.

Saints will certainly be no pushovers.

They have in their minds that, to beat last season’s record finish of 7th on 60 points, they must collect 13 points of a possible 18 with six games left.

Everyone at Saints is refusing to give up on ambitions of Europe and are expected to be in no end-of-season mode when Benitez’s beleaguered side come to town.